


with the wild wolves around you

by Anonymous



Series: moon called [4]
Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, NHL is only getting more evil as this series goes on, Pack Dynamics, Past Abuse, Scattered Worldbuilding, Slice of Life, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 17:04:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23539927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Ondrej doesn't know what to expect in Boston, but Boston might just have what he needs
Relationships: Ondrej Kase & Boston Bruins Ensemble, Ondrej Kase & David Pastrnak
Series: moon called [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1651210
Comments: 10
Kudos: 45
Collections: anonymous





	with the wild wolves around you

**Author's Note:**

> Ngl, this is ... odd. It's a strange mix of my signature domestic fluff and angst, and not much actually happens, it kinda ends on a high note but there's also no real resolution. What can I say except #quarantinemood
> 
> Warnings for: Past abuse, see endnotes for more details
> 
> Also I made Anaheim kinda evil (sorry Anaheim)
> 
> Title from Bon Iver
> 
> Standard disclaimer, this is a work of fiction inspired by real people. It does not reflect real life at all and if you know anyone mentioned personally, please do not read

There are whispers about Ondrej before he even gets off the plane at Logan. He’s injury-prone, he’s soft, he’s nothing special. The unspoken implication is that he doesn’t deserve his place. A foreign wolf that difficult, just isn’t worth the trouble. 

Pasta scowls when he hears. “Such bullshit,” he hisses during the impromptu Pack meeting in the locker room after practice. 

Patrice makes eye contact with Tuukka, who raises his eyebrows. Patrice shakes his head. They’ll get to the bottom of it later. “You know none of that matters with us,” he tells Pasta calmly. 

“Yeah look what they say about Marchy?” Tuukka chirps. 

Brad sticks his tongue out. 

“Chris said he was a good guy,” Matt offers.

Pasta looks upset. “Who said he wasn’t?”

Krej puts a hand on Pasta’s shoulder and Tuukka gives Patrice another look.

“Is there something else we should know about Ondrej?” Patrice asks. 

Pasta bites his lip. “We don’t talk that often, but--”

“But?” Tuukka prompts when he doesn’t go on.”

“Ondrej _ is _ a good guy,” Pasta says it the Czech way, _ On-zhray_. “I think he has a bad time, because he’s a wolf.” 

“Like you did in Sweden?” Tuukka asks because he’s nothing if not blunt. 

Pasta shakes his head slowly. “Bad like Andersson, in New York.”

Jeremy takes a sharp breath in and Marchy whistles. 

No one knows the details of what happened between Andersson and the Rangers, and the league is gossipy as fuck so it’s hard to say what’s truth and what’s an exaggeration, but young first round picks don’t go running home for no reason. 

No one says anything for a long beat but Patrice feels eyes on him. They need reassurance and he has to be the one to offer it. “What Ondrej thinks of having a Pack may not be the same as what we do. He’s not the first wolf to come to us like this, and he won’t be the last. Our job is to show him what our Pack is like and to let him make his own choice.” 

“You think he won’t want to be in our Pack?” Jeremy asks in French. His voice is uncharacteristically soft. 

Patrice fixes him with a look but doesn’t make Jeremy repeat the question. “I think he deserves the respect to decide for himself,” he says in English. 

Jeremy blushes, ducking his head. “Okay, yeah.”

* * *

They end up at Krej’s apartment even though it isn’t a full moon. Matt changes so he and Marchy can tire Jeremy out. Patrice doesn’t change because Tuukka can’t make it and he doesn’t want to make Pasta self conscious. Pasta cracks his knuckles so many times that Krej sends him to the kitchen to chop vegetables, just to give him something to do. 

“David’s worried,” Krej says unnecessarily. 

Patrice tips his head in acknowledgement. “Nothing we can do until Kase gets here.”

“Do you think …” Krej trails off. “It was pretty bad with David. Do you think this will be worse?”

Patrice remembers the way that Pasta cried without making any noise, how young he looked, how young he _ was_. It’s hard to imagine much worse than that. But he thinks of Galchenyuk, on his fourth team in two years, or Nichushkin, or any of the number of horror stories he’s heard over the years and he shudders. “I hope not.” 

Krej glances at the kitchen. “Me too.” 

Patrice hears footsteps in the hall and goes to get the door. Zee is expected and behind him, Carlo, the only person on the team who can’t hide behind Zee, is doing his best to remain in the background. “Come in,” says Patrice, raising a questioning eyebrow in Zee’s direction. 

“I have been telling Brandon that he has as much of a place in this Pack as anyone else here.”

Patrice nods reassuringly at Carlo who blushes and hesitates on the threshold. 

“If I have a place, of course you do too,” says Krej, appearing like magic just when he’s needed. 

“But you’re you,” Carlo points out quietly. 

Zee clearly wants to argue that point but he visibly reins himself in and lets Krej take it. 

Patrice makes eye contact with Krej, who nods. “I’m gonna go see if Pasta is done chopping, coming Zee?” 

Zee gently squeezes Carlo’s shoulder and follows Patrice to the kitchen. “He’s so used to hiding. It will take time before he feels comfortable with his place among us.” 

“He’ll learn,” Patrice reassures him. “Pasta is a wreck about Kase. It makes me wonder how bad it will be.” 

“We won’t know until he arrives.”

Patrice sighs. “I just told Krej the same thing. What did Tuukka have to say?”

“Nothing good,” Zee says, tired. “He’s right when he says the League breaks them all one way or another.” 

Patrice shakes his head. “It’s not just them, either. Look at Carlo or Matt, or any of them. Caught between the league and their instincts, feeling guilty for the minimal freedom they enjoy.”

Their eyes catch for a moment, remembering their own experiences breaking into the league. 

“Hi Zee,” Pasta sticks his head out of the kitchen. “Do you know what Krej is making? How many carrots can he possibly need?”

Patrice groans. “The carrots are for the carrot cake. You grated them right?”

“Ummmm, not really.” 

Zee smiles. “It’s fine, we can grate the chunks in the food processor.” 

Thank god for Zee. Patrice picks up the knife on the cutting board and starts cutting up the sweet potatoes. 

“How are we doing?” Krej asks, Carlo trailing after him. 

“Plug this in,” Zee says, handing Pasta a cord. “We’re shredding the carrots now.” 

Krej smirks. “I should have known better than to leave you here without supervision, _Davidek._” 

“They’re both orange,” Pasta whines, mostly just to fuss. 

“Do you have another knife? I can help,” Carlo says. 

“How do you feel about broccoli?” Krej asks, handing him a knife. Patrice moves over so he can have half the cutting board.”

“Fine?” says Carlo like he’s not sure what the right answer is. It makes Patrice ache to see him revert to the soft spoken first year player he was when he first arrived. 

“Well we certainly can’t let Pasta at it,” Krej teases. 

“Hey!”

Carlo cracks a smile. “I’m no chef like JD but I can cut broccoli.” 

“I can cut broccoli!” Pasta insists. 

“Face it David, you’re worse in the kitchen then I am,” says Patrice, laughing. 

“I am not!” Pasta half shrieks, reaching over to plug the food processor in.

Krej whips around. “Wait! You have to unplug--” 

The outlet sparks and the kitchen is plunged into darkness. 

“Oh fuck,” Pasta mutters.

“Pasta I know that was you!” Brad yells from the other room. Matt howls in agreement and Jeremy joins in. 

Carlo bursts out laughing. “You are not coming anywhere near my broccoli, dude.”

* * *

Pasta wants to meet Kase at the airport but management wants to speak to Kase first, and apparently he’s been sick too, so Patrice has to talk Pasta out of it. Instead he lurks outside the office, completely unsubtle as always. Patrice has noticed that Pasta has a way of disarming people with his openness. He’s so forthcoming that it’s easy to forget he has hidden depths. It’s something he and Tuukka have in common.

So Pasta lurks, Patrice keeps an eye on Pasta, and Zee keeps the rest of the team from opening their big mouths about it. 

Patrice is about to check on Pasta for a fourth time when he hears voices in the hall.

“... if you had a mixed pack in Anaheim but that’s what we do here. So it’s mostly wolves but there’s Krej who isn’t anything but himself, and Zee is a caster, and Monte-- that’s Brandon Carlo-- is a caster too but he’s kinda sensitive about it, so he doesn’t come around much.”

Kase makes a noncommittal noise. 

“Jer-- sorry Lauzy-- changes all the time because there’s no rules in the Q so he’s not used to it here yet, even though he was in Providence for like a year and a half. Marchy likes to change too. Matt only changes if they ask him too or for the moon and someone always stays human for us, usually Bergy. Oh right, we spend the moon together, all of us and it’s good but if you don’t want that, you can pick someone until you’re more comfortable, or like whatever you want. Krej will do it.” 

“He’d spend it with _ me__?”_ Kase asks, skeptical. His voice is quiet, or maybe Pasta is just talking really loudly. 

“Why not, I’m in good hands,” Pasta says, a little too rehearsed to be casual. “Oh look here’s Bergy.”

Patrice offers his wrist as they round the corner. He’s not sure if Kase will be comfortable greeting him the wolf way but he wants to leave the option open. “Welcome, we’re happy to have you.”

Kase blinks. He starts to bend forward instinctively but visibly stops himself and shakes Patrice’s hand instead. “Happy to be here.”

As he pulls away, Patrice notices a shadowy mark, maybe a bruise, that extends up Kase’s arm. He forces himself not to react. “I won’t keep you from your tour. Don’t let David talk your ear off.”

Kase glances at Pasta, concern visible on his face. “Oh no, he’s very good.”

“We saved you carrot cake from last night!” Pasta says. “We should see if Krej brought it or you have to pick it up.”

“Do you have a rental car?” Patrice asks.

“Am I allowed?”

Patrice tries not to jump to any conclusions even though he feels Pasta stiffen next to him. “You have your license right?”

Kase nods. 

“No problems then. You’ll pay big money for parking but it’s nice to have a car so you don’t have to carpool to practice all the time.” 

“Yeah Torrey always makes fun of my hair in the morning when he drives me. You don’t want that!”

_ “Můžete s ním být o samotě?” _ Kase asks, surprised.

Patrice isn’t sure what that means but Pasta stops so quickly he almost trips over his own feet. _ “Je to tady lepší, slibuji,” _ he says fervently. He looks like he wants to pull Kase close, but he doesn’t. 

Kase glances anxiously at Patrice. 

“Usually the rule is English with the team, but we won’t be angry if you speak Czech in private,” Patrice assures him, hoping it’s the right thing to say.

“No one will be upset if it’s an accident. It’s just so no one feels left out,” Pasta adds, latching on to what Patrice realizes is a subject change. “Jer always speaks French when he’s tired.”

That pulls a tiny smile from Kase. “Always tired in the NHL.”

* * *

“We are reporting the _ fuck _ out of Anaheim,” is the first thing that Tuukka says when he walks through the door. 

“Keep it down,” Patrice warns. “They’re asleep in the guest room.”

‘They,’ is Kase-- Ondrej, Patrice reminds himself-- who tried to sneak off to his hotel room, and Pasta, who offered to go with him before they ended up in Krej’s spare bedroom. 

“Pasta talked to you?” Krej asks, handing Tuukka a cup of tea. 

“I won’t tell you Ondrej’s story, that’s for him to say, but … they isolated him, they were controlling, pretty sure they hurt him-- hurt him physically or at least let him hurt.”

“Not much difference,” Krej mutters. 

“Do we need to call David and Danton?” Zee asks, concerned. 

Tuukka shrugs. “We should give them a heads up that management are abusive dickwads with their heads up their asses, but I don’t think they’re in any danger. The team didn’t help but I’m sure management fed them all sorts of bullshit lies about wolves and Ondrej was the only one on the roster. Pasta said something about him being handled separately from the rest of the team. Anaheim is not a good place for wolves.”

“I’ll call Sid in the morning,” Patrice says. “He’ll tell Malkin. Brad can call MacKinnon.”

“I already texted Dobby and Price,” Tuukka says. “I’ll call Carolina tomorrow.”

“I’ll let Looch know,” Krej offers. 

“I will contact David and Danton,” Zee says. “And anyone else we think may need a warning.” 

“Speaking of warnings, Dobby gave me a heads up that the Council monitor in Nashville tried to put Saros into isolation last full moon,” Tuukka says, anger evident in his voice. “It just never fucking ends.”

“Is he okay?” Patrice asks. 

Tuukka rolls his eyes. “Are any of us okay? He’ll be fine.” 

“Back to the matter at hand,” says Krej, getting up to put water on for more tea. “What does Ondrej need from us? And what should we expect from him?”

“He had a mark on his arm, not a hockey bruise,” Patrice says quietly. 

Zee bares his teeth, like a wolf. “He’s getting checked out tomorrow by medical. David said something about signs of chronic silver poisoning.” 

Tuukka’s hands tighten dangerously around his mug. “If the Players’ Association doesn’t want to straighten them out, I will.”

“What could cause something like that?” Krej asks. 

Tuukka scoff is ugly. “Aside from straight up dosing him with silver, chronic pain is my best guess, or repeated injuries.” 

“Trauma,” Zee says bleakly. “It doesn’t happen for no reason.”

“Concussions?” offers Pasta, appearing in the kitchen doorway. “He’s had a lot of concussions.” 

Patrice shudders involuntarily. Concussions are unpredictable, even for wolves. Accelerated healing doesn’t touch them and they’re too dangerous to heal with magic. The only thing to do is wait and hope, something he’s all too familiar with. 

“How is he?” Krej asks, going to the fridge for milk.

Pasta bites his lip. “Confused. He doesn’t know what to expect with us.”

“He’ll learn,” says Zee. 

Pasta sits when Tuukka pulls up a chair. “He’s scared I think.”

“Welcome to the Adult Table,” says Tuukka, sarcastic. “Now you too can worry about your traumatized friends.” 

“I don’t like it,” Pasta mutters. 

“None of us like it,” Tuukka shoots back. “But that’s how it is.” 

Krej hands Pasta a mug. He pouts. “I don’t want tea.”

“It’s hot chocolate,” Krej says, exasperated. 

“Oh, thanks.” Pasta takes a sip and gathers his thoughts. “Is this what you felt like when it was me?”

“Yeah, but worse because you were a kid,” says Tuukka, ignoring Zee’s admonishing look. 

Pasta scowls. “This sucks.”

* * *

“Eyyyyyyy, sniper!” Jake shouts, throwing his arms around Ondrej as the puck hits the back of the net. 

Ondrej freezes for a split second before relaxing into the touch. “You want what I’ve got!”

“A terrible beard?” Pasta chirps.

Charlie cackles “The ability to score!” 

Jake lets go of Ondrej and tackles Charlie to the ice. “Why the fuck do I associate with you?”

“Because you looooooove him,” Pasta yells, drawing the sound out. 

Charlie flops around dramatically. “Yeah, you love me.” 

“Whatever, I’m ending our friendship and only speaking to Ondrej now,” says Jake, still laying on top of Charlie. 

Ondrej smiles, and sweeps Pasta’s legs out from under him. 

From the sidelines, Patrice hums in approval. “Zee’s plan to get him comfortable with the team is going well.”

“If there’s one thing we’re good at, it’s hugging,” Marchy says. 

Tuukka smirks. “Just don’t lick him Marchy!”

“That was one time!”

On the ice, Pasta has gotten up and started collecting pucks and Ondrej is helping Jake to his feet. Charlie gets up and fixes his practice jersey. “Is it okay in the back?”

“Looks great,” says Jake, but he can’t keep a straight face. 

Ondrej makes grabby hands, and smooths it out when Charlie comes closer. 

“You are all lazy,” Pasta announces. 

“Drama Queen,” says Jake, which sends Charlie into a fit of giggles. 

“Like you can talk.” 

“Ondrej, am I dramatic?” Jake asks. 

“Please tell him the truth,” Charlie begs. 

Ondrej pauses thoughtfully. “Maybe a little.”

“That’s like saying Marchy is maybe a little bit pest,” says Pasta. 

“Marchy is a little pest,” Jake points out. “That’s kinda his thing.”

That sets them all off laughing again. 

“No respect from these kids,” Marchy mock grumbles. 

Tuukka raises an eyebrow. “They aren’t wrong.”

“No respect from you either,” Marchy says swatting at Tuukka, who dodges easily. 

“Ondrej said he wants to spend the full moon with us next week,” Patrice says, completely unfazed by the antics. 

“It’ll be good for him,” Tuukka says. “He needs a Pack.” 

“Zee is gonna try to bring Carlo too,” Patrice adds. “Speaking of needing a Pack.” 

“Gonna be a full house,” Marchy observes. 

“It’ll be good,” Patrice says. “We’ll go to Zee’s so there’s room to run around.” 

“It’ll be hard, Ondrej’s first time with the Pack,” Tuukka counters. “But you’re right. It’ll be good for him."

At center ice, Jake slings an arm over Ondrej’s shoulder. Ondrej ruffles Pasta’s hair, Pasta sputters, and Charlie looks indignant at being left out of the shenanigans. 

“He’s already doing a lot better,” Patrice says. “It’ll take time, but I think he’s gonna be just fine.”

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Past abuse is heavily referenced, though nothing particularly explicit. Ondrej was the only wolf in Anaheim and he was kept isolated from the team, only allowed to interact with them with permission. Aside from this being generally abusive, in this universe, wolves need physical contact and/or a Pack, which was intentionally withheld from him. It's implied that he wasn't allowed to have a car, and that management may have intentionally hurt him and/or withheld medical treatment. It's made very clear that this treatment was wrong. 
> 
> Notes:  
Můžete s ním být o samotě? - They let you be with him alone?  
Je to tady lepší, slibuji - It's better here, I promise
> 
> Wolves - Bergy, Marchy, Tuukka, Pasta, Kase, Gryz, Lauzon  
Casters - Chara, Carlo  
Humans - Krejci, Jake, Charlie Mac, Krug, Backes, Heinen, Wagner


End file.
